Adewale Adeyanju, the President general, Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN), in reaction to the commissioning of the new labour call house in Delta port, Warri. The commissioning was done by Hadiza Bala Usman, the Managing Director of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA). While speaking to journalists, Adewale Adeyanju urged the Nigerian Ports Authority to look into the situation with dockworkers who have been disallowed from working at private jetties.
Adenyaju is of the opinion that in addition to the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) and the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), who are authorized to license and monitor private jetties in Nigeria, the Nigerian Ports Authority should keep a keen eye on the private jetty operators. To which effect he said “we are requesting that activities of the private jetties be looked into with a view to providing for the participation of dockworkers in private jetty operations.”
He insists that private owners have deliberately closed the jetties to dockworkers and in the process, denied them work.
Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria’s President General, Adewale Adenyanju, commended the efforts of both the Nigerian Ports Authority and terminal operators regarding the commissioning of the new labour call house at Delta ports and expressed his desire for the project to be replicated at all the ports situated in Nigeria.
He pointed out that the fact that dockworkers were not engaged at the private jetties; private owners could take advantage and use them as a means of shipping illegal items in and out of the country. This is reason enough for reinforcement of security at private jetties operating in Nigeria.